The present invention relates to a biological cell test method and apparatus, and particularly a method that employs physical properties by applying electric field on animal or plant cells located in a plurality of arranged holes to interact with the impedance, inductance and capacitance characteristics of the cells under the flowing current or electric field to detect the presence or the property reactions of the cells.
Biological technology is a technique that uses biological cells or their metabolic substances to manufacture products or improve animals, plants, microbes and their related products to improve the well-being of mankind. The technology has been applied to medicine, food, special chemistry, environment protection, oceanology, energy and agriculture. In response to biological research and development, such as mapping and sequencing of gene, biological chips have been developed and introduced to meet the demands of vast and fast reactions taking place during the research processes. The biological chip is an integration of functional biological material and micro mechanical electric techniques. The micro-electro-mechanical system techniques provide miniature planning and designs for the chip and offer a plurality of miniature zones in a small area to create reaction environments for functional biological materials.
In the past using the biological chip to do tests for biological cells usually is done by chemical methods. The biological cells are disposed in the holes of a perforated cell carrier, then a chemical agent is dispensed, and a fluorescent agent is added to see the reaction of the biological cells through an optical means. The chemical test method involves a lot of tedious procedures and requires many peripheral equipment. Moreover, the chemical test tends to destroy the tissues of the biological cell. And the preservation time of the biological cell also is shorter.
Therefore the primary object of the invention is to resolve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention provides a novel test method and apparatus in addition to the conventional chemical methods of exploring the characteristics (properties) of the cells (animal and plant cells). The method of the invention employs a physical approach to focus on the cells that have inductance or capacitance properties. The reaction properties of the cell may be obtained with or without using the fluorescent agent during testing. The biological cell test may provide cell multi-properties with flexibility and effectiveness.
In order to achieve the foregoing object, the method of the invention employs a conventional perforated cell carrier which has a plurality of arranged holes. Each hole has two metal electrodes extending outside the hole. A cell is disposed in the hole to contact the two electrodes. As the cell has impedance, inductance or capacitance properties, when the two electrodes are energized with electric current or voltage, the electric current or electric field flows from one electrode through the cell to another electrode, as a result, electric reactions occur and the presence or absence of cell in the hole or property reactions of the cell may be detected.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.